Kaplica Zwiastowania Najświętszej Marii Panny przy kościele Bożego Ciała w Krakowie

Abstract

Adjacent to the Corpus Christi church in the district of Kazimierz in Cracow there is a late Mannerist chapel of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary which has not been scientifically documented yet. The circumstances of its foundation and a more precise date of construction have not been determined. No formal and stylistic analysis has been carried out and the authorship of the chapel has not been definitely solved. The chapel was built during the rule of Fr. Jacek Liberiusz who was the General Superior and Pastor of the Corpus Christi parish since 1644. The chapel of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary is attached to the south aisle of the church and situated between the Gothic chapel of St Anne from the west and the Mannerist vestibule from the east. Thus a line of different architectonic blocks with the dominant chapel of Mother of God is created. The chapel is founded on a square plan. Its spatial composition is simple. Outside there is a principle of piling three geometrical blocks: the lower one - high - in the form of a cube, the middle one - low - in the form of a window storey and the third one in the form of a semicircular dome with a lantern. The chapel is surrounded and covered up from two sides, namely from the west and to a smaller extent from the east. It is made of stone, with its main storey rusticated, whereas the upper part has got a flat stone lining with low and broad pseudo-Tuscan pilasters from both sides of the corners. On the southern elevation, on the background of the rustication, there is a commemorative tablet framed with shell-like ornaments with mascarons. To the interior of the chapel from the south aisle there leads a stone portal in the form of a rectangle closed by an arcade and single pilasters, fluted in a double way, with broad capitals. The interior of the chapel strikes first of all with its verticalism and Classical order of articulation (illustration 6). It consists of pilasters of great order rested on high stylobates. The pilasters in the corners are broken. The division of walls by vertical elements shows wide middle fields filled with blind recesses having an arcades close and concentrated pilasters near the comers. The capitals carry a proper entablature with a high frieze and prominent mould. The articulation and general expression of the interior are diametrically opposed to the outside of the chapel. The middle part corresponding to the second outer part constitutes a passage to the canopy of the dome which rests on quarter-circular arcades between which there are pendentives filled with paintings portraying the four Evangelists embraced with stucco frames decorated with shell- and ribbon-like ornaments. The chapel of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary at the Corpus Christi church in the district of Kazimierz in Cracow belongs typologically to the group of sepulchral domed chapels began by the chapel of Bishop Tomicki in the Wawel cathedral and developed at the end of 16th century by Santa Guci and his followers. The outside of the chapels was modified by the introduction of rustication. The classical architectonic division of the inside walls based on the pattern of triumphant arch was maintained. Therefore, the Kazimierz chapel belongs to the group of so-called Dominican chapels together with the chapel of the Myszkowskis, the chapel of St Jack, the chapel of the Lubomirskis in Cracow, the chapel of the Tenczyńskis in Staszów and the chapel of the Denhofs at Jasna Góra. Among them the Kazimierz chapel is the latest link and comparatively exactly dated (1640/44-1662, consecrated in 1673). Its author chose simplification of the block and detail, use of tectonics and limitation of ornamentation. He did not imitate exactly any of the chapels in spite of the undoubtedly definite provenance and particular forms and solutions. He enriched them with original motifs such as separating the second storey outside, window solution inside this area as well as decorative and symbolic motifs (especially the obelisks). In this light the chapel becomes almost a formal canon of this architectonic theme. The decoration also does not show any direct references to other works of that kind in Cracow. The authorship remains unknown and cannot be speculated on the basis of other contemporary works in Cracow. As far as details are concerned they cannot be related to any other works. The architect of the chapel of the Annunciation knew the architectural output in Cracow and Little Poland, being certainly Italian. Some ideas can be referred to the invention of Liberiusz.